


Debacle

by deathwailart



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Family, Foursome - F/F/F/M, Humor, Multi, Polyamory, Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-07
Updated: 2014-08-07
Packaged: 2018-02-12 04:38:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2096073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deathwailart/pseuds/deathwailart
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pregnancy and fancy parties don't go well together.  Neither do Seithr Shepard and Dalatrass Linron.  Part of the same verse as <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/1419609">Family Rituals</a>, <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/1944642">Misplaced</a>, <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/2080194">Cajole</a> and <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/2080227">Set</a></p>
<p>Written for the 30 day drabble challenge: debacle</p>
            </blockquote>





	Debacle

Seithr is six months pregnant, at some diplomatic function because she can't escape it, with a hand always at the small of her back, usually belonging to someone else – Kaidan, Miranda or Liara – because her centre of gravity is shot to hell. She wonders sometimes how Liara did it but Liara wasn't held together with metal because her doctor (doctor _s_ plural because the fact that she even conceived naturally actually surprised the hell out of all of them so she's been to so many she can't remember all their names) says that it's natural she's feeling additional strain because her body wasn't rebuilt for this. She'd had to send Miranda on every ridiculous pregnancy errand that she could so the other woman would stop feeling guilty, reminding her that they wouldn't be them if she hadn't brought Seithr back from the dead. Still, she's got swollen ankles, her feet and back ache, she's got heartburn that scorches like thresher maw acid.  
  
Still, even though all she wants is to lie in bed or on the couch with her feet up and a bowl of something balanced on her belly, tonight is one of the first real nights with the krogan present, Wrex and Bakara both present – Wrex is badgering everyone with an endless stream of baby photos and everyone is too scared to leave – and Bakara is socialising like she was born to do it. Most of those assembled probably haven't ever seen a female krogan, let alone talked to one and Bakara is the mother of Tuchanka, the kind of figure who gets to go down in history. Grunt is also putting in an appearance, boasting about Aralakh Company, the young krogan he's going to teach; apparently he's kept up his studies, wary of what Okeer did to him and if they fight, it's for a reason. He also keeps coming over to tell Seithr's bump (it's a boy, her and Kaidan are both sure it's going to be a boy) about who he's talking to, about all the trouble they'll get into when he gets to come to his first boring old person party.  
  
Iris is with a sitter pouting because she wanted to show the old people how to play tackle the varren.  
  
Sometimes Seithr really worries about the extended network of aunts and uncles and just how wild her kids are going to be when they're actually unleashed in public when they get too big to be carried easily.  
  
In all honesty, she's actually feeling nauseous. Her morning sickness is gone thankfully but her sense of smell is more sensitive because any smell she didn't like in the past that would make her shudder or gag now usually has her waddle running to throw up. It's easy enough to deal with at home – if it makes her throw up, she's not around it but tonight there's food wafting past on silver trays and she's starting to struggle. She tries to catch someone's eye – one of her partners or Wrex, Bakara or Grunt – so she can maybe get out of here, as much as she'd like to stay because watching her friends work the room and talk about their children and the rebuilding efforts, how they're going to have scientists to rival the salarians one day, just you watch, is fun. (It actually makes her want to cry but if a pregnant woman cries then everyone immediately rushes over and she's already got her bump as public property and she just wants some peace.)  
  
"Commander." She meets the wrong eyes and it's Dalatrass Linron, ancient for a salarian, wrinkled and trying to smile. Honestly she's amazed Linron is still around after everything but they're all trying to do the blank slate thing. So Seithr composes herself, reaching out to shake the woman's hand, a waiter passing by with a plate of something smelling an awful lot like day old fish.  
  
When she opens her mouth to greet the Dalatrass, she throws up. Violently. She sort of misses the aftermath really but Grunt cheers and starts calling for what he once explained is the krogan equivalent of a kegger but with some kind of ryncol mixed with something translation software couldn't help them with. On the ride home she gets a message from Wrex, one line that makes her laugh.  
  
_Thanks Shepard, I owe you one._  
  
She can't stop laughing for the rest of the ride.


End file.
